Conventionally, as a resist material to be used in a photolithography process, there has been known a resin composition containing a resin, which is changed to alkali-soluble by a reaction of a carboxylic acid derivative or a phenol derivative by an action of an acid, for example, a tert-butyl ester of a carboxylic acid, or a tert-butyl ether or a silyl ether of phenol or the like, and a photo-acid-generating agent. By irradiation of an active energy ray of, for example, UV-rays and the like onto such a resin composition to decompose the photo-acid-generating agent, and to generate a strong acid, and still more by carrying out post exposure baking (PEB), deprotection of the carboxylic acid derivative or the phenol derivative in the resin is induced by an action of the strong acid generated from the photo-acid-generating agent, and a carboxylic acid or a phenol is generated. By such chemical change, a resin at an exposed part, where the active energy ray are irradiated, changes to easy-soluble to an alkaline developing solution, and then by an action of the alkaline developing solution to the resin, pattern formation is carried out. Usually, in such pattern formation, the active energy ray of far-ultraviolet light (wavelength 200 nm or shorter), KrF excimer laser light (wavelength 248 nm), ArF excimer laser light (wavelength 193 nm), as well as F2 laser light (wavelength 157 nm), extreme ultraviolet light (wavelength 1 to 30 nm), and the like, are used in exposure, however, in recent years, application researches have also been carried out, using a photo-reaction, where the active energy ray of a long wavelength region, such as near-ultraviolet light (wavelength 200 to 380 nm), visible light (wavelength 380 to 750 nm), and the like are used as a light source. For example, as a resist for i-ray lithography using a wavelength of 365 nm, a diazonaphthoquinone (DNQ) resist is generally used, however, i-ray lithography using a chemically amplified resist has been received attention, because the chemically amplified resist is capable of preparing a resist having high sensitivity and high thickness, not attainable by the DNQ resist. Accompanying with this, as for the photo-acid-generating agent, such one has been required that is sensitive to the active energy ray of a long wavelength region, such as for using i-ray lithography or the like. In addition, a cross-linking reaction using an acid generated from a photo-acid-generating agent as a catalyst has also been attempted, and as application fields of a material utilizing such a cross-linking reaction, there are a semiconductor device (an interlayer insulating film, a buffer layer, a bump layer), 127 MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System), a liquid crystal display, an organic EL display, a sensor, a solar cell, printing and the like.
As the acid-generating agent having sensitivity to such an active energy ray, ionic-type or nonionic-type ones have been known. As the ionic-type acid-generating agent, for example, an aryl sulfonium salt compound (for example, PATENT LITERATURE 1 and 2), or the like has been known. As the nonionic-type acid-generating agent, for example, sulfonate esters, for example, a nitrobenzyl sulfonate compound, a N-oximesulfonate compound, a N-imidesulfonate compound and the like have been known conventionally, and as for these sulfonate esters, various investigations have been carried out, because of relatively easy chemical modification and superior solubility (for example, PATENT LITERATURE 3 and 4). In addition, as a different type from the sulfonate esters, a diazodisulfonylmethane compound (for example, PATENT LITERATURE 5), or a α-sulfonylketone compound (for example, NON-PATENT LITERATURE 1) having function as a photo-radical initiator, or the like has been known to generate an acid by irradiation of an active energy ray.